In today’s fast-paced world, it’s becoming increasingly common for people to take a break from their careers to focus on other areas of their lives such as spending time with family, pursuing further education, or simply taking a break to rest and recharge.
But, before waving goodbye to your job, it’s important to consider how this decision will impact your finances.
There are several reasons why you may choose to take a career break:
Even a short career break can have a significant impact on an individual’s life. These may include:
If you’re out of the workforce for an extended period, there may be longer-term impacts. Extended career breaks may result in:
While there are numerous potential impacts, many people successfully navigate these challenges and find ways to re-establish themselves professionally. Planning ahead, continuing education, networking, and maintaining industry connections will help mitigate some of these effects.
The impact on cashflow is often front-of-mind for people considering a career break, and for good reason. However, careful planning across these key areas will help minimise the financial effects:
Budgeting and Saving
Debt Management
Return-to-Work Plan
Career breaks offer invaluable opportunities for personal and professional development. But, without sound financial management, they can also pose significant challenges.
Before you make any decisions, talk to your financial adviser to ensure there aren’t any hidden financial consequences you haven’t planned for.
Information on this site may be regarded as general advice. That is, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information. Accordingly, you should consider the appropriateness of any general advice we have given you, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. Where the information relates to a particular financial product, you should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase that financial product.